


Even Angels

by bucharestbuck



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Heavy Angst, Human Castiel, Hurt, Hurt Castiel, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Protective Dean Winchester, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-06-18
Packaged: 2019-05-24 20:40:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14961785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bucharestbuck/pseuds/bucharestbuck
Summary: Cas is taken hostage by a demon intending to make the Winchesters suffer. Dean’s unaknowledged feelings for Cas are brought to light after finding the angel missing. It is only made worse when he finds out exactly how Cas was tortured.





	Even Angels

**Author's Note:**

> Please check the tags if you haven’t already. Read at your own risk.

“Okay, on three,” Dean whispered. “One. Two. Three!”

Sam, Dean, and Cas burst through the door into the two story farm house. The three hunters scanned what appeared to be a living room attached to a dinning room, seven demons glaring viciously from various places in the room. 

Seven on three didn’t place the odds in the hunters’ favor as they shot, stabbed, and punch through the demons. Dean and Sam had each taken down a demon and Cas was well on his way when the lights flickered and more demons arrived. 

“Dean!” Sam screamed as the screened door was slammed open and five more demons poured through. 

Dean turned to his brother just in time to see him be slammed in the back of the head, knocking him out. “Sammy!” Dean bellowed, fighting even harder. 

But his struggle was futile. One of the many black eyes grabbed Dean from behind and held him as the one he’d been previously fighting wailed on him. Dean groaned as he has hit two and three times in the gut, and once in the face for good measure. He dropped to his knees in pain, the demon still holding his arms behind him. 

The many bodies in the room seemed to part to make room for a tall, muscular man dressed in all black. As he approached Dean, Dean was able to strain enough to the side to see where Cas was slumped over in the hold of two other demons. 

Suddenly a frigid hand was grabbing deans face, directing his attention upward. The demon bared his teeth in what was probably supposed to be a grin, but looked more like a manic grimace. 

“Easier than I thought it would be to subdue the Winchester’s and their pet angel,” the demon said, voice low and menacing. “Master will be so pleased. I really wasn’t supposed to let you or Sam live,” he continued, “but the idea of making you both suffer is more appealing, and I’m willing to take the punishment. Say goodbye to your pet, Dean.”

A fist slammed into the side of Dean’s head, and it went dark. 

-

Dean came to with Sam shaking his shoulder and calling his name. 

“Dean. Dean, wake up. They took Cas.” 

Dean jerked awake, blinking his eyes rapidly a few times, unsure whether it was a concussion making everything spin or just a headache. Sitting up quickly, Dean assessed what was left of the house. The furniture was destroyed, remnants strewn about the hardwood floor. Sam sat on the floor to his right, back against the wall, and he was right. Cas was no where to be found. 

“I don’t understand,” Dean said roughly. “Why would they take Cas? It’s not exactly like he’s angel of the year, but he’s just been with us for the past few months. 

Sam tilted his head, “That might be exactly it. Cas has been with us and taking him away would hinder us and slow down our progress in getting to their master.” Plus, it will throw you into a tail spin, Sam thought. But he wasn’t going to say that out loud. 

“If they wanted to slow us down for good, why not just kill us? It’s not like they didn’t have the chance,” Dean continued. “Demons and their convoluted reasoning.” 

Dean lifted himself off the floor and then offered a hand to Sam, helping him up too. “So we headed toward our hit on ‘the Master’ to get Cas?” Dean asked? 

“They could have taken Cas anywhere, Dean. It may be best to just go back to the bunker and try and work this from all possible angles. There’s no guarantee that the lead was even a lead at all,” Sam said, trying to reason with his brother. 

“We aren’t just going to go back to the bunker and sit on our ass waiting for the demons to call and tell us they dumped Cas’ body somewhere!” Dean growled. “We should follow the lead to the master. He’ll be the one to have Cas.”

“Dean…” Sam started but relented as his brother was already out the door and halfway to the impala. 

The boys had gotten a hit on some irregular weather patterns and other signs of demons the night prior, so they had headed out first thing the next morning to see if these demons were under new leadership called ‘the Master’. A high level demon had sprung up about two months ago, recruiting the average demon into some kind of militia. The high level’s intentions when it came to using the militia were still unclear, but the little band of psychos had been on a murder spree through the Midwest in “the Master’s” name. It sounded pretentious to the boys. 

It seemed the meddling of the Winchester’s, which they thought up until now had been covert, was really a thorn in the Master’s side, enough so that capturing Cas was worth his while. The Winchester’s had been trying to work this case while also doing little side jobs along the way. While demons following a new, murderous Master was pressing, the Master hadn’t had the militia do anything out of the ordinary for demons, meaning the boys would work cases, demon related or not, as they popped up. 

However, now, it was all hands on deck, and Dean was not stopping until the Master’s neck was under his boot. He would see his black eyed ass up in flames for the offense of taking his angel. Er… his and Sammy’s angel, Dean mentally corrected. 

Since there had been a lull in big bads, and Dean had had time to devote his brain power elsewhere, he had come to some realization that maybe his fixation with Cas was something other than platonic. But beyond that, Dean had decided he shouldn’t go there. They were close friends and partners in crime, and anything beyond that would remain a whim in Dean’s brain to contemplate on lonely nights. But now that Cas was gone, probably being tortured by some filthy demon, Dean’s heart was in his throat. Each second, he could only think of worse things than punches or choke holds that the demons might be doing to Cas; Cas who is unable to fight back and doesn’t know how long until or even if Sam and Dean can save him. 

But they will save him. No way is Cas getting away from Dean again. So Dean was driving like hell to a little town in nowhere Kansas in hopes the murmuring of demons would lead him to the bastard who took the angel and hopefully, Cas himself. 

“Dean, maybe we should switch. You’ve been driving for hours,” Sam said. 

Dean ignored his brothers words. Stopping meant they would be losing time, time Cas might not have. 

“Dean, seriously. You’re weaving like crazy,” Sam continued, “Let me take the wheel and you can get some shut eye. Promise I won’t make any pit stops.”

Dean continued driving for a few more minutes after Sam’s speech, but eventually relented. Sam had said he wouldn’t make any stops and Dean would hold him to that. They pulled over and the brothers switched quickly, Sam taking up the same brutal pace Dean had been keeping. 

“We’re going to find him,” Sam suddenly said. 

“I know,” Dean said softly. 

“Everything is going to be ok,” Sam went on. It sounded like he was more trying to convince himself, rather than Dean. 

“I know,” Dean said again. “I’m not losing him again. I won’t… I can’t.” 

Sam glanced over at his brother, taking in the dark circles under his eyes and the furrow of his brow. If they didn’t find the angel soon, Sam knew the worry would eat his brother alive. He suspected that Dean was worried from a different place than Sam was, but Sam would wait for his brother to tell him that. Pushing ideas on Dean had never and would never work, so he let the conversation taper off, focusing on the road ahead. 

Dean slowly leaned back in the seat and fell into a fitful sleep. 

-

Cas came to in what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse. As he slowly gained feeling back in his limbs, he realized that he was hanging by his wrist from a chain attached to the ceiling. He quickly stood as much as he could, his feet just barely off the ground so that slumping was that much more painful, to take the pressure off of his aching arms and shoulders. 

His head snapped forward when he heard movement. A tall man in a black suit waltzed into Cas’ limited line of sight, a smirk on his lips. 

“Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty,” the man growled. 

Cas frowned, fidgeting slightly as the man drew closer, the knife in his hand becoming visible. The smirk turned into a predatory grin as he danced the blade across Cas’ cheek and down his neck, coming to a stop with the point of the blade digging into the hollow above Cas collar bone and below his Adam’s apple. 

“I can see what everyone’s talking about now that I’ve gotten a good look at you,” the man said. “If all angels looked like you, I might just have to switch teams.” 

The white of the mans eyes slowly ebbed away as the black spilled over. Cas grunted, startled that he could not see the demon’s true face. 

“Oh! You’re wondering how you didn’t see past the meat suit,” the demon grinned. He reached up and tapped the cuffs around Cas’ wrists. “Warded and spelled. You are basically human in these.” 

Cas swallowed, his neck sifting against the metal still digging firmly into his skin. The blade suddenly lifted from his neck and sliced through the skin on his chest. Cas groaned, unprepared for the pain. He had to agree he was definitely human. 

The demon talked and sliced Cas’ body haphazardly. Cas broke out in a cold sweat from the effort of trying to remain both standing and silent, his body made up of aching limbs and ripped skin. His head slowly began to sag forward as the overexertion took over. A hard slap to Cas’ right cheek had him throwing his head back, eyes wide more from surprise than pain. 

“Wake up. We haven’t even moved on to the main event yet, angel,” the demon growled in Cas’ ear. 

The demon slowly moved behind Cas’ hanging form. Cas’ ears perked up at the clinking of a metal belt buckle being undone and falling to the floor. The demon sidled up behind Cas, wrapping one arm around Cas’ chest to hold the blade up to his neck. The other was at Cas’ waist, expertly undid the button and zip on Cas’ pants. 

“Now this,” the demon said, mirth evident in his voice as he pushed Cas’ trousers around his knees, “will destroy your precious Winchesters.” 

-

A city limit greeted Dean as he woke. He ended up dozing on and off for the few hours to the city and the warehouse that the Master had supposedly made into a base. Dean hadn’t prayed in a long time, but he slowly found himself asking Chuck for Cas to be in the warehouse alive. 

Suddenly Dean’s phone began to ring. He pulled it out of his pocket, expecting a call from a friend needing intel or maybe some help, but the caller I.D. read ‘unknown’. Dean accepted the call, quickly putting it on speaker. 

A gruff voice spoke, “Hello, Winchesters.”

Dean immediately recognized the voice on the phone. 

“We are coming for you,” Dean growled, “Cas better be in one piece or you sure as hell won’t be.”

“It seems my plan has worked quite well,” the demon said. “You’ll find the angel exactly where you think he will be. And you better hurry. If he hangs much longer he might suffocate from the weight of his fragile human body.” The line went dead. 

Without missing a beat, Dean quickly turned and said, “Drive, Sammy.”

The wheels on the impala screeched as Sam slammed his foot onto the accelerator. What would have been a twenty minute ride turned into a tense ten minute game of chicken with oncoming traffic. 

Dean was jumping out of the car and running toward the lit warehouse before the impala had even stopped moving. Gun in hand, Dean threw the sliding metal door open with reckless abandon, ready to mow down anyone or thing standing between him and his angel. However, the gun was quickly being shoved into his waistband as Dean took in the sight before him. 

Cas hung limp and slumped over from rusted chains. Cuts, some scabbed over and some still oozing blood, and bruises littered all his visible skin. And there was too much visible skin. The normal starched white button down was hanging in shreds from Cas’ straining shoulders and his pants were pooled around his ankles. A fire unlike anything Dean had ever felt, blazing hotter than holy fire, surged through him as he ran to Cas. 

“Cas. Hey, buddy. Me and Sammy are here,” Dean muttered as he undid the cuffs biting into Cas’ wrists, his body slumping against Dean’s. As soon as the metal was undone, the cuts and bruises began to heal, the angel’s grace returning to his body once more. 

“I’ve got you,” Dean whispered. 

The angel seemed unresponsive, head lolling off of Dean’s shoulder as the hunter shucked off his coat to wrap around him, the mangled shirt a lost cause. Before Dean attempted to fix the angels pants, Sam appeared beside them and uickly pulled the khaki fabric back into place. This seemed to get the comatose angel’s attention. 

“Please,” he croaked, voice raw from screaming, “No more. Please.”

Dean had never heard Cas beg for anything. 

“Cas, it’s us. It’s Dean and Sam,” Dean said, trying to keep his voice from shaking. 

Cas’ head slowly turned up to look at the hunter. “Dean?”

“Yeah buddy. It’s us. We’re getting you out of here, okay?” Dean answered. 

“Dean…” Cas said, his voice small. Suddenly tears welled up in the angel’s eyes. He quickly turned his head away, burying it into Dean’s shoulder. A tidal wave of relief surged through Cas as something inside of Dean broke. 

The hunter scooped the angel up in his arms and began carrying him to the car. All of the physical trauma had disappeared, but the memories were beginning to resurfaces as Cas regained consciousness. Dean sat Cas gently into the back seat. A pitiful whine escaped his throat at the loss of contact with the hunter, more tears trailing down his cheeks. 

“Shh, it’s ok,” Dean comforted as he slipped in beside the angel. He quickly pulled Cas back into him, wrapping both arms around his shaking form. Broken sobs escaped the angel as he clutched at Dean like he was about to run away. Dean glanced up from the broken angel in his arms to make eye contact with his brother. Everything that had been unspoken up until this moment passed between them. Sam nodded in understanding before starting up the impala. 

Cas only let go of Dean when they pulled into the garage under the bunker. He used the sleeves of his borrowed jacket to wipe at the tear tracks on his cheeks, a shaky breath escaping him. He slowly reached down to grip the seat, knuckles turning white as more tears welled in his eyes. 

“I’m going to go ahead and get some food started,” Sam said turning to Dean to make sure he could handle the distraught man beside him. The look on Dean’s face was all the confirmation Sam needed. “I’ll be in the kitchen.” With that, Sam was gone. 

“Cas…” Dean started, only to be cut off by the man himself. 

“I have been alive for eons,” he began. “I have seen the rise and fall of empires. I have battled enemies far more powerful than me. I have seen good times, and I have seen bad.” His voice began to shake. “But never once have I felt more helpless than I did in those chains.”

The angel’s head feel forward against his chest as he began to cry again. His arms came up to wrap around himself. 

Dean slowly closed the distance between his body and Cas’, giving the other time to move or push the hunter away. When he found no resistance, he pulled the angel to his chest, wrapping his arms around him. 

“I can’t even begin to understand what you endured,” Dean said. “But, I am so sorry that this happened. I’m sorry that you knowing us, knowing me, only gets you hurt.” The hunter brought his hands to the sides of Cas’ face, coaxing him to look up. “I will do anything I can to make this better. I will go to the ends of the earth to fix this and destroy the the filth that did this to you. I swear it.”

A broken smile twisted Cas’ lips. “You always were so righteous, Dean Winchester.” A calloused hand gently found its way onto Dean’s cheek, skimming the top of his cheek bone. “My knight in shining armor.”

“My mother always said I had angels watching over me. But even angels need someone to watch over them,” Dean whispered, one of his thumbs moving softly over the chapped skin of Cas’ bottom lip. 

Cas' hand slowly curled around to the back of Dean’s neck, hands playing with the short hair he found there. “You always were my savior,” he whispered, pulling the hunter to him. 

As there lips met, it was as though everything leading up until this moment, all of the pain and heartbreak, were preparing them for this moment, the moment when everything fell into place. 

The kiss remained chaste, neither wanting to push the new found intimacy blooming between them. Slowly, they broke away, their eyes roaming the others face before settling once more on candied green and piercing blue. 

“We are going to bring this guy down,” Dean promised. 

Cas could only nod, too overwhelmed with a whirlwind of thoughts and emotions. Dean pulled Cas back to him, his arms around Cas’ waist, Cas' head in the crook of his neck. Dean placed a gentle kiss in Cas’ hair. They both realized a single kiss would not heal all of the wounds on either of their souls, for only time could heal them, but it was enough to bring them comfort. And finding comfort was a rarity.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me @bucharestbuck on tumblr. Feel free to stop by and make requests of just to say hi! 
> 
> There is a chance I may add another chapter or make this a series. Stay tuned.


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